Expanding the legend...

Posted on Sun Oct 6th, 2024 @ 12:34am by Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

Mission: Deep freeze
Location: somewhere in the matrix
Timeline: pre-current

The time of the Valkyries was at hand.

The team had ranged out in spirals from their new hub, mapping the landscape, setting up long range signals, filling caches with a few supplies in case someone was caught in a storm, or needed to replace food or equipment without going all the way back.

The weeks enabled them to map out the region for days in each direction. There was an ocean on one border, some mountains on another. The team had had winter climate training, so the snow-shoes they’d fashioned proved a boon to travel, as well as the skis. None of the locals seemed to want to travel anywhere but the roads below, which gave them an advantage, tactically. Only trappers or hunters ranging deep would chance to cross their tracks.

On yet another foray, K’ner heard the signal for help, but it wasn’t coming from the direction of the Jarl’s village. Signaling the others, she geared up and headed out with the others on her trail. It was well into the afternoon when they saw the telltale flying on a limb and converged.

Working quietly she split the team and worked on in two directions until K’ner sighted a narrow knob upon which was perched Sgt Peke. Waiting a moment she finally got his attention.

“They gone?!” He was kneeling now, looking all around.

K’ner and the team hadn’t encountered anyone. “We haven’t seen anyone, just you.” She signaled the others to be on alert.

Peke seemed frustrated. “It’s freezing up here but they can’t climb. If they’re not gone, then they let you in and I was just the bait!”

K’ner called the others in closer for a tighter defense. She noticed then that the forest had quieted down. She didn’t have to tell Peke that he was the high lookout and she waited.

And waited…

This opponent was wiley. K’ner knew someone was there, several someone’s. She couldn’t hear them or see them, but she knew they were there. Now that she’d spent enough time here, she could get the occasional whiff of something that was upwind. Furs… everyone wore furs, but this was different. Fresh furs? Perhaps not someone but some, thing…

“Peke, did you see what herded you up there?”

“Wolves… I think. They blend in with the blowing snow. But they growled and barked enough to give themselves away. I think now, it was planned that way and now they have a few more meals at hand.”

K’ner almost chuckled. “Indigestion is more like it.” She rose from the defensive crouch she’d held herself in for the last hour. She knew someone eating her flesh wouldn’t have a good time after. Not so much a consolation if that were to happen, since she’d likely be dead, but perhaps some small comfort in the end.

She stepped forward, waving the others back closer under Peke’s knob. Nothing could get in behind them there, so whoever, or whatever, came up with this tactic, they’d been confident enough to narrow down their attack angle.

K’ner shucked her outer furs, limbering up her harness and relaxed… The opponent was not just wiley, but patient. Not desperate yet, crafty and likely assessing them as much as they were figuring out their own options.

She felt a presence before she actually saw anything… damn white fluff everywhere! It was the eyes she noticed first. She held its gaze at first, as it moved forward carefully. It must understand ranged weapons and watched her just as carefully. She hadn’t brought out her bow, but she knew a couple of the others would be ready to engage anything incoming before switching to melee.

Big… wolf, yes, but wow, K’ner figured she would be looking eye to eye with the big brute. Beautiful though. Good health (her medic mind always had to go there).

“Holy shickle-enz Chief!” She could hear Peke commenting from his perch above when he saw it. The others maintained their silence but she could tell they were eager for something to happen. But here, now, the magnificent beast in front of her was worthy of her respect. She kept her hands clear of her weapons. Gauging its size and claws, not to mention the teeth that she suspected lay in that large maw, she knew she’d have to be extremely lucky to win a one-on-one fight. He would know she had fought, certainly, but the odds were against K’ner and she knew it.

The two leaders considered each other, K’ner had decided this had to be the leader of the pack. Her team hadn’t panicked and run, where they’d be picked off one by one. They hadn’t immediately set up defenses in the area, they hadn’t attempted to track the opponents and attack, they’d simply waited… This was undoubtedly uncommon, and now the pack leader was curious. As the two evaluated each other, each moved closer, an inch at a time. Each watching, listening, smelling, assessing.

K’ner idly signaled the others to hold firm, no actions. The subtle growls from the gruff one before her were perhaps the same in kind. K’ner thought of what they’d discussed amongst themselves, what everyone remembered of this time, this genre of a world-scape. She remembered tales of giant wolves, one or two more famous than others perhaps… What were they…

"Vánagandr??” The wolf’s ears rotated as she spoke. “Fenrir?” The staring contest continued.

“Hróðvitnir…” The ears locked forward and he let out a huff and a growl. K’ner had realized the wolf growled much like anyone would speak. Not necessarily in anger, or dispute, but the pitch would convey meaning. And right now, she wasn’t feeling any warning or alert.

“Hróðvitnir then. Either the name or the language is familiar.” K’ner continued to speak, focusing as much on maintaining a relaxed posture, as speaking evenly, no sudden moves.

The two had advanced until there were practically touching, no circling like prize fighters, but straight on, no deviation. K’ner decided to try something she’d seldom done, but knew cultures where the gesture meant something socially.

She leaned her head to the side, baring her neck, hands wide. She kept the wolf in her peripheral vision, the growl longer this time… It seemed at once perplexed, curious, perhaps even amused. After a few moments she turned her head back forward, then slowly bringing a hand forward.

The growl grew somewhat in volume, but K’ner wasn’t getting the alert vibes yet, so she continued. The large one actually let her put her hand on its muzzle, then the side of his face. She scruffed around a little bit, getting a multi-pitched growl that seemed… pleased? Yes, he had actually closed his eyes for a few seconds. She stepped back a pace, then turned around, giving him her back. She signaled the others to a relaxed posture. They stowed weapons that had been in hand, and donned their outer furs again.

Well, she wasn’t dead or mauled, so she turned back around, slowly. Hróðvitnir, as she’d decided to call him, stood tall, looking around the group. Eventually he seemed satisfied and yip-barked, to the left, then to the right. In a few seconds, several other wolves shook themselves from the snow! They didn’t have quite the mass and height of Hróðvitnir, but they would’ve taken a toll on the Hazard Team for certain, coming from surprise and so close in!

K’ner laughed, which seemed to amuse the pack leader. He shook his head and howled, followed by the others. K’ner shrugged her shoulders and joined in, followed by the rest of her team, Peke the loudest of all, albeit quite off key, atop the knob where he’d been herded earlier.

K’ner waved the team out; they would return to the hub and continue their preparations. The team carefully made their way through the pack where they stood, only Peke attempting to pat one on the head after he’d slid down to join the others. The wolf was wary, but let him get two pats in and a short laugh, then he caught up with the others, whispering away at Roadie as they left.

K’ner looked over the pack, knowing there were bound to be more not far away. “You have a fine pack here Hróðvitnir. If you should have need of us, we will come.” As she spoke, he stepped forward so his head was over her shoulder, contemplating his pack as well. She reached up to scruff the side of his neck, rewarded with the change in his growl, then turned and left. She signaled the team that she was following along and to keep going.

A couple of times on their way back she sighted either Hróðvitnir or one of the pack. That couldn’t have been an accident, but she had yet to decide if cooperation would be the pact, or an uneasy truce. Time would tell.

Oh, what the tale of the Valkyries would become with this expansion of the legend!


OFF:

Lt Betaras K'ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris

:o)